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2013-08-16 - Daddy Issues
Scott Summers has been pouring over security footage for quite a it now, while others crunch other data trying to track down the absconded-with Hope Summers. When the car arrives at the gate, he glances up and frowns, and when "Hope" gets out, his eyes widen, and he reaches to pluck up the visor sitting on the side-cabinet nearby, swapping it with his ruby-quartz glasses. He reaches into a pocket and keys the communications device Cable provided them with and sends a short message explaining the situation, suggesting that he port in on the opposite side of the car to flank them, if possible, then calls for Jean on his regular communicator to have her meet him out front. In fact, she might need to give them a TK-lift, since it's actually quite a ways from the mansion to the gates. At the mental alert from Scott, Jean is running out and along with Scott. Literally using her telekinesis along with Scott to fly and 'jump' through the air, carrying them both. Hope is given an attempted strong mindprobe, even in mid-jump from Jean, trying to see what's going on! There is a flash of light and Cable appears in combat gear and a large plasma rifle in his hands. He looks teed off already. "I wouldn't do anything like move. Till this is all sorted out." Hope Summers is not alone as she gets out of the car. She also looks, fully armed. Emptying out of the vehicle with her is none other than the Nasty Boys. There is Ramrod, Ruckus, Slab, and Gorgeous George oozing all over the place. When Jean tries to prob her, she is met with great resistance to the intrusion...telepathic barriers. Hope actually smirks as Cable threatens, and Jean with Scott approach. "You know, I almost feel like I should do a speech here. But I'll just leave it at this," a pistol spinning in her long fingers. "Change what you can, accept what you cannot." And then smiles in a sinister manner. "And guess what I can change Scott?" The smile starting to fade and her expression turns ugly, "I can avenge my dad," actual hate, honestly to goodness, rageful and nasty hate coming from her demeanor, her tone, her word choices...there is no compassion, no give, no forgiveness. "Ruckus, Gorgeous George, take care of the gun-totting wanna be merc!" And even as Hope starts to yells out the command, her gun had already flipped up to shoot a hollow point bullet right between Scott's eyes....even as her body moves to the side in a roll to avoid a potential counterattack from Jean. It seems that the general call has been heard by someone. Emerging from behind the mansion, soaring to a position above the roof, a familiar figure clad in green hovers, late to the party, but just in time to see tiny gun-toting goons roll out of the car. Scott's communicator crackles with a southern drawl. "Now...just wha da hell is goin' on ovah there?" The floating figure of Rogue takes off like a shot, closing the distance rather easily to the car. A gooey tentacle lashes out towards cable, even as the car stereo is suddenly turned up loud - extremely loud. $20,000 stereo equipment inside the car, loud. Ruckus turns the sound energy into a vibrant blast, shattering the gates and sending them hurtling into the lawn. "This," he snarls, with a sinister glee that matches Hope's words, "Is gunna be fun." Then, he takes Hope's firing of the gun, and shouts it straight at Cable, even as the tentacle moves to slap some sense into the future-traveler. Slab, meanwhile, begins to grow, slamming his fists and meaty muscles together, and begins to head towards Jean. "Looky what I got here," he says, with a rather malicious, and dark sort of smile. "It's a prize." He tears off some of the brickwork that once fenced in the gates, and turns, to hurtle it at Jean with deadly force. Scott has just enough time to look surprised before his brains blow out the back of his skull, and he falls face-first onto the ground, dead as a door nail. "Uninvited guests. Treat them as hostile, including Hope but minus the big white-haired fellow with the guns. I suggest starting with the noisy one." Jean Grey instinctively puts a force field up and over in front of herself and Scott, even as Scott is ducking and rolling, and she curses. As the gate is hurled up at her, Jean doesn't bother with trying to block it, just dropping to the ground and doing a quick evasive roll that Ororo taught her. At this point, Jean's calling out a telepathic alert for everyone present, and then is on the offensive. Towards Slab, she attempts to hit him with a telepathic bolt, an overwhelming mental command if she can possibly focus and burn past whatever is doing the telepathic jamming with brute mental power, the command simple. SLEEP. "Kid you fucked that one all up." Cable says as he opens fire at the guy firing a sonic blast at him. There's a roar as the gun try to let out a sound even louder than the stereo. "Professor Body slide by 1." Then the mutant merc disappears in a blink of an eye as the tentacle hits where he was standing. Then he reappears flanking the pair of villains again. "So whose your new friends Traveler?" Hope is quick and fast on her feet, already coming up shooting from the roll. A few shots toward Jean to distract her, but she is really working to get closer to Scott to use the sawed off shotgun...ya...incendiary rounds are messy. Her clothing is all black with a white long coat over it. The long coat doesn't seem to get entangled up with her movements. Let's just say, Sinister had fun dressing this one up like a doll. "Surprised much? You never did trust me! None of you did! Then again, why should you?" Hope's movements eat up the grass as she purposely tries to draw Scott's attention. "I'm an outsider! Who doesn't even know her mutant power!" And she barks a short laugh at Cable's words, "A traveler, with no home. But you know what? I got all the skills I need to avenge my dad!" And she's bringing the sawed off shotgun that hangs from a strap about her around, "I'd kill anyone for my dad!" In a way...she sounds so passionate, it's difficult to tell what is real and not real, or perhaps there are partial truths hidden in there. The pain and rage seems all so real. Ruckus is used to dodging guns; this is the same guy that wrecked an entire street, and toppled cops with his mutant power just because he wanted a beer; he absorbs the sound of Cables gunfire, even as he dodges the blast, even as he's flanked. He then rips another sound-blast towards Cable's new position, while George reassess the situation, and rushes in to give Cable a nice hug from the tentacled blob mass that he is. Slab staggers back at the power of Jean's suggestion, puts his hand on his head, squints, as he half-forgets what he was going to do. "No," he says. "Not tired." He shakes his head, fighting it off; but the fact Jean's suggestion didn't outright work suggests that they've been 'beefed up' for this particular event. Slab slams a meaty fist into the ground. Ramrod, meanwhile, having gone unnoticed as of yet, slams his staff into the ground, and the grass, and flowers, other foliage that Scott's near begin to grasp at him - to hold him down, so Hope can put that bullet between his eyes. "Right. Got ya" is the response over the communicator. Rogue doesn't argue as she angles downward, towards the car. Based off the quick display of power she saw, Rogue makes a split-second decision and veers towards Ruckus. She isn't really slowing down at all as she swoops in, her intention simple. She extends her right arm out straight from her body, in a clear attempt to clothesline the cacophonic one. She may do some serious damage, either taking his head off at her speed or doing some damage to those vocal cords, but she really doesn't seem to care at the present time. "You give trust to get trust, Hope." Scott replies quite evenly to Hope, and she doesn't even get the shotgun fully leveled before another quick pulse of optic blast aims to quite literally blast it out of her hands. Might break a couple fingers, but she'll thank him for it later. Probably. That having been done, he sends out another blast, this time towards the ground directly in front of Hope, trying to throw her off-balance as she advances. The fist slamming into the ground staggers Jean some, and she quickly changes tactics. having read the files on the Nasty Boys, which includes the fact they're clones, Jean's eyes flash. "You know one of the wonderful things about the human body. is that blood is always moving and flowing. Even more to the fact, the human brain is where blood flows the fastest." Okay, probably not quite fully accurate biology there. "One of the things about Telekinesis is that it can do both big and small things. I can catch that huge gate you threw, or I can tie my shoelaces. Now I'm going to do one of them to you." Jean prays that she can do this right. Looking over at the battlefield, then she tries to telekinetically pinch one of the primary veins over in Slab's brain if she can, to try and hold off the blood flow for several seconds of it before releasing. if it does work, it should hopefully give him a short term seizure without permanent damage. if it works. Cable is a bit proud of Jean. Yup that's my Mom. That's when he has another sonic blast coming his way and George. Cable moves quicker than any man his size or any size has a right to move. His reaction time perfect as if he was a machine. He comes up with a grenade in his hand. He reaches up pulling the pin with his teeth. Then tosses it. Lucky for George and Ruckus. It's knock out gas." The strap is yanked hard as the shotgun is blasted and yanks Hope back to the ground. She grunts at the impact, the breath obviously knocked out of her, but she still pushes up from the ground and flips over, the shotgun dented so she gets rid of it. She is going to be bruised black and blue tomorrow and might have a broken rib or two, but she managed to get her fingers out of the way. Hope's face is a bit dirty from the spraying dirt that was sent back her way when she was yanked back by the shotgun strap. "I gave you my love! But -he- said they were just false memories. It doesn't make it any less betraying what you did to me!" Yep...Mr. Sinister made sure that Hope would stay hyperfocused on Scott, which will make it even more difficult to tamper with her mind. Still, as she snapped back up, Hope's sore fingers reached down to pull an old knife from her black boot. It has been resharpened countless times, with a wooden handle that seems so plain. But it is quite smooth after years and years of use. The knife blade is long, perhaps five inches. When Hope pushes up from the ground, she's quick and jerks to the side as she works to attack Scott toward his side, slashing toward him with expert ease as she works purposely not to give him a good shot at her - as if he has to constantly chase her with his eyes. "Give me back my dad!" Tears are actually in those rageful eyes. Yes...the pain is very much real to Hope. And her fighting style? Violent, effective, and quick. She's constantly moving, and shows absolutely no fear. Her ability to switch weapons and adapt is likely beyond any of the normal students at Xavier's Institute in a combat situation. Rogue catches the view of the gas grenade...but just barely. She is already almost on top of Ruckus, that arm of hers poised to mow down the flamboyant leader. You can almost see the slight shake of her head as she decides to clam up, hold her breath and try to outrun the gas, all while maintaining her previous course of action, running that arm of hers at breakneck speed across Ruckus's throat. Ruckus turns just at the right moment, and screams at Rogue, ... well, almost at the right moment. Rogue's fists connects with the man just at he lets loose that wicked, awful powerful scream, and he crumples into the ground - likely dead. Just like Slab might be; he bellows, swings his huge, meaty arms about in pain, stumbling, grasping, and moves towards Jean to try and crush her with his meaty fist, before he -- too, goes down in a crumpled heap. It seems the Nasty Boys haven't fought the X-Men since they got a bit more brutal. Ramrod, however, is having none of it. And, at his bidding, a giant tree swipes at Jean from behind, knocking her forwards onto her face, and the grass extends, along with vines, weeds, flowers, to virtually trap her like ten thousand lilliputian strings, keeping her face down, into the dirt, so she can't see. George dissolves into a - well, blobeous thing, sort of, so he won't have to inhale the gas, while half his team falls to the X-Men. Cable's likely to notice the small red dot, on Rogue's head, pinning it down and getting a bead on it, with his battle senses, and experience, while the 'ooze' that is George moves rapidly over to Cable, intent on encapsulating Cable in himself, perhaps, and 'drowning' the mutant. "I don't know what lies Sinister filled your head with, Hope, but that's exactly what they are. -Think- for a minute. Remember why you're -really- here! You came here to stop Sinister and people like him, and now you're -working- for him?" Some people tend to forget that Scott is more than just a ranged weapon. Hope gets in close with the knife, but she finds him to be an elusive target, shifting to avoid the swipes of the blade, lashing out more than once to deflect her attacks by striking at the redheaded teen's arms, cutting off avenues of attack before they fully materialize. It's almost like he seems to know almost every move before she makes it. It doesn't help Hope's case that Scott is finding some elements of her fighting style to be...familiar. But regardless of that little quibble in the far back reaches of his brain, he continues, "That's bullcrap. You're stronger than this, Hope...one of the most stubborn people I've ever met, and you're just going to lie down and let him win, just like that? I don't buy it." Jean Grey is slammed back by the tree, being flung several yards through the air then and blinded over, her head snapping back then as her eyes flash, turning almost red with fire as she hits the ground and rolls hard, landing on her back, and putting up a force field in front of her. "That is ENOUGH! You have hurt my FAMILY, you have tried ot kill my FRIENDS, and now you are assaulting my HOME." Rage builds in Jean, as a bit of almost fire flickers along her eyes, and she blasts out at everyone that's still up and still attacking - a brute force, full disorienting telepathic assault that hits the remaining Nasty Boys, that targets towards Hope, "STOP IT!" Cable calls out to Rogue, "Sniper, Dodge." He knew the southern woman could take care of herself. He calls out to Cyclops, "Cyclops, castle. Bodyslide by 1." He says as his hand goes to his belt and pulls the same knife that Hope uses from his belt. He appears between Scott and Hope, His own knife parrying Hope's chaotic and brutal style. He never goes on the offensive. Her strikes are blocked time and time again by either his own knife or his metal hand. "You're well trained Traveler." "I'm not working for Mr. Sinister! I'm just using him! He found who killed my dad! And he's going to tell me what my powers are!" Hope Summers doesn't seem 'quite' the same personality before. Similarities, but there are also some terrible differences. Then, the telepathic assault sheers pain through Hope, and she screams out, "GET OUT OF MY HEAD!" But Jean can feel the barriers starting to crumble under that onslaught, more than denting them. It is that very cry that caused her to overshoot her attack, giving Scott even more room to perform the chess move and Cable to bodyslide in. Hope's movements become more aggressive and violent then before if possible, "Get out of my way! Mr...he trained me!" Something skip jumped right there, likely something between Scott's taunts, and Jean's telepathic cry, and...perhaps more too. But the red head is picking up the pace once more, trying to catch Cable off guard, even picking up some dirt and grass to fling up toward his face though it is a tactic Cable knows well enough to avoid. Each move that Hope makes seems to be mimicked by Cable in a counterattack or parry. It is as if they are two sides of the same coin, no matter their size and height difference. The girl's expression is intense. "How" This is more than just Scott recognizing some of the moves from his extensive training and marital arts, the two are fighting with the exact same style. A style of martial arts, that not even Scott or Logan would recognize, though they would link moves from it to many other martial arts styles. The mirror blades spark as the clash, Cable's appearing less worn than Hope's. No matter what Hope seems to do, Cable does the seeming perfect mirror imitation to stop her. Jean Grey sees the rapid back and forth of blows going between Cable and Hope, and her eyes flash. the remainder of the Nasty Boys seem to be going down, and Jean maintains her assault. She calls out telepathically to Rogue. ~Rogue, can you grab her and hold her? If necessary draw out some of what's in her.~ Jean would not ask Rogue to do such a thing if there were another way, and she still hopes that it isn't necessary, yet another burden to put on her closest friend. Even now, trying to find a way to batter down the barriers of the younger girl. Rogue would dodge, if it were possible for her at that particular moment. The sonic assault connects with the flyer, hitting Rogue in the stomach as her fist connects. The quick assault knocks her off-course, sending her careening to the left even as the sonic punch knocks the wind out of her. She tumbles into part of the broken gate, sending debris flying as she crashes down. On the plus side, the unexpected flight plan into the destroyed gate should have made it difficult for the sniper to get a clear shot off. The shot flies through the air, slamming straight into Rogue's upper right arm, the same one she just used to kill - or, knock out, Rucks with - he and Slab are still prone on the ground. Even as Cable and Hope 'dance', George emerges out from his murk, two tentacles masses grappling Cable's ankles, and pull him onto the ground, to give Hope opportunity, perhaps, to end it all right then and there. The mutant's grip is strong, and he's certainly no slouch, despite his gelatinous state. Ramrod runs into the fray, and attempts to upend Scott with his staff, from behind the mutant while he's concentrating on Hope. Jean can feel the shields crumbling, and just as she may get that moment where she feels successful, it all comes to a rapid end. Suddenly darkness seems to cloud her vision and mind as if she is being sucked into a deep, dark hole. And suddenly...there is a cry from Jean as she crumbles to the ground. While everyone sees a fallen Jean, red hair spilling about the ground, Jean sees a very different image in the dark shadows. Telepathy: There is a red haired child with pig tails, and she's curled up, arms around her knees crying, heavy sobs that sound as if each one might be her last. Before her is a faceless woman with long red hair. She wears a green dress, simple in design, and brown work boots. Blood is spreading across her chest as if a blooming rose. This isn't where Jean meant to be, and only too late, will she realize that Mr. Sinister laid a trap...one meant to trap Jean in the young woman's mind. In reality, Hope draws in a harsh sound, much like a sob and one of pain at that as her eyes squint and she seems very unstable at a moment. Perhaps only Cable might hear the barest words, "Mama," but she picks up fighting again whole-heartedly. Something was triggered inside Hope's head as Jean entered it, crumbling the older woman, and it is this, that helped protect Cable during that moment of distraction. Telepathy: In the outer world, Jean crumbles. And inside of Hope's mindscape, she realizes that she's fallen for a gambit. Her eyes flare and flicker. "Hope, listen to me." Jean's eyes flash, and her figure turns armored. Growing with fire, taking on the attire of the Phoenix, but of a more armored style. it gives her comfort, and reassurance. And power is proportional to will. So she has to take what she can get. Jean goes towards the fallen woman, and towards Hope. Telepathy: "Little girl...," a deep voice...familiar sounding. The girl starts to unwind herself, and rubs at her eyes. She searches around, before she then takes off running, "Nay-Nay! Nay-Nay!" She stumbles and falls though, sniffering loudly as she pushes herself back up, trying not to cry and to be brave. Her lower lip quivers however. She's right in front of you, but cannot seem to see or hear Jean. Still, there is a low thrum almost to the environment when Jean summoned the Phoenix armor. Ramrod's tactic might have worked, except that Scott wasn't concentrating on Hope anymore. At Cable's suggestion of "castle" Scott ducks out of the way of another of Hope's strikes just in time for Cable to port in. Ramrod swings his staff towards Scott's legs, but Scott leaps into a combat roll, one hand moving to his visor, unleashing a blast mid-roll that's aimed to slice right through those tentacles reaching for Cable's legs, and then he's back up onto his feet, turning around to face Ramrod, blasting yet another pulse of crimson energy to try to destroy the weapon that just tried to upend him. He hears Jean's cry, but he's in combat-mode now. Emotion is something that he pushes deep down to the depths of his mind now, focusing solely on the battle at hand. Attack and counter, maneuver and defend, a whirlwind of possibilities and contingencies somehow managing to seem perfectly orderly to -him-. He can't afford distraction while they're still outnumbered. He'll feel terrible about it later...but that's later. Telepathy: But that is what the Phoenix does in the darkness. it brings light. It brings warmth. It brings Hope. And so Jean glows. Brighter and brighter. Burning with energy. Trying to fill the dark void with it. Going over towards Hope, trying to brush her fingers towards the girl. Whispering, "I'm here. Come with me." Trying to build up the warmth emanating from her. Cable frowns as he struggles against the tentacles till Cyclops rescued him. Thanks Dad. Cable's attention turned backed to Hope." You're good kid. Somebody trained you up right and everything you know. The question is did they teach you everything they know?" With that he flips the blade around using the handle as a fist pack and he throws a punch at Hope's face. He pulls his strength and it's only a love tap but if he connects he hopes to knock out Hope. Without allowing her in too much trouble. Telepathy: Teared filled green eyes look up at Jean finally, but the older voice of Hope comes out. "You already failed." And where their should be warmth is heat, where there should be hope is despair as the landscape suddenly unfolds before Jean. It...looks a bit like New York City, but is broken and battered. Sandy dirt and broken roads, the buildings tilting and not a single window whole. Abandoned, and so dry it hurts. A wasteland. For Jean, it may feel like hours or worse as she will be wondering those streets. Telepathy...is a strange thing at times. But after a long while, she starts to hear a soft whisper. "Find me....find me....find me....," over and over again, seeming to leader her further and further into the ruins of what was once a great city. A wince of pain and Rogue pulls her arm in quickly. There isn't any blood, but there is a definite tear where the bullet passed through her jacket. She quickly turns, her eyes peering in what she thinks is the direction the bullet came from. It seems the bullet hit pulled her back to her senses, as she calls over to Cable. "Cable, ya able ta take her? Ah don't take kindly ta pot shots. Dat could've hurt." She wasn't happy before the shot. Now Rogue is downright miffed. "Not like we don't got enuff goin' on as it is." Rogue's buying time, trying to zero in on the sniper's location to give him or her a piece of Rogue's mind... Telepathy: Jean doesn't quite know what is going on, but she knows the first thing she has to do is restore Hope to Hope. "We haven't failed. You're still here. So long as anyone is left alive, and still believes, there will be Hope." In the dreamscape, Jean begins searching. Guessing it's a vast sea of emptiness. so, she tries to bring hope to her. Singing. Telepathically sending out her own waves of gentle music. Telepathy: As Jean sings, the whispers seem to get louder, leading her where she needs to go. There is...no, this is not right. It appears to be Xavier's Institute, but it is broken and rotten, fallen into disrepair with the mansion long gone. There is a heavy metal door over the access area to the sub-levels. It takes some work, but Jean is able to slowly start to open it, a glow filling around the edges, a golden glow. As the door is flung open finally, there is a reflection of Jean - or so she may think at first - in the Phoenix armor. Except, it is actually Hope. "It's alright to fail Jean. That is why I am here." And the older Hope smiles sadly as she reaches out to touch Jean. "Now, free me. I am trapped, but you can free me Jean. Just believe." And for those few moments, Jean can feel power flow through her, expand her very being. She is...everywhere. It will not make sense, the pain and suffering, the love and sorrow, the lost and determination that is all felt that is 'Hope Summers'. But Jean can feel the power to unlock the girl's mind burst from her, power that makes her feel as if one with Celebro. In reality, the move causes Hope to pause slightly, "Wait, seen..., Nay-Nay," tears flowing from the girl's green eyes even as the little 'love tap' sends Hope into oblivion. A name, that Scott would likely overhear. Suddenly, there are about ten little red lights on Rogue's body ... all from different directions. But all across the way from the gate that leads into the mansion area - that's pretty much destroyed by the Nasty Boyz. George howls in pain -- and if he's still alive, he's passed out, now, due to the severing, nearly, of his appendages, thanks to the power of Scott's up close and personal blast. Ramrod is able to get his staff up, but not in time, and he's blasted several feet, into a tree, where he's knocked unconscious. As the battle seems to be going south, the red dots on Rogue's chest disappear, one by one. The smoke, mostly, seems to have cleared? But is anything ever really over, where Sinister is concerned? Telepathy: Jean is very confused now. All this time travel, things from here and there.. It is confusing her. She sighs, and accepts it. "All right. Just so long as we get her out of here. She's going to be okay?" Jean closes her mind then. Calling upon something that is not her's. That she can't do. But this is the astral plane. And belief is what drives willpower. Willpower drives existence. And Jean closes her eyes then. And she hums quietly, "I think I can I think I can.." And the world goes white. In reality, Jean's eyes flash open on the ground. She surges up to her feet. Well, less surges and more rolls around like a turtle that's been flipped over onto it's back. Scott looks around to make sure the battle is concluded, and being relatively certain that it is, he moves over to help Jean to her feet, frowning a bit behind his visor, "What happened?" He queries of the redhead as he looks back to Hope and Cable. Maybe for the best that Scott didn't really get a chance to watch the two of them fight each other. He'd pretty quickly conclude their training comes from the same source. Meanwhile, he punches up his comm to see about getting the remaining Nasty Boys policed up and stowed away somewhere secure. Cable catches the girls knife as it falls from her hand. He looks at it for a moment examining it. He flexes his fingers around it. "Grips wrong now been used by little fingers for too long." He muses. He sheathes his own blade. He then looks back to the girl. "No Nay-Nay here." The blades dropped. Then he says, "Professor Body slide by one." The cyborg teleporting away. Jean Grey slowly sits up, exhausted at the deep mental joining then, curling up to her feet, "I feel like I'm going to sleep for a week.. Rogue, you okay? Scott?" Jean can barely move, barley focus, and blood is flowing down her nose. "Dat's right! Bettah not let me catch ya 'round 'ere again!" With that, she turns around, her back towards the broken gate. She reaches up to the hole in her jacket, two fingers reaching in and pulling out the sniper bullet, flattened into a mushroom upon impacting Rogue's arm. She walks over to Scott, dropping the bullet into his hand. "Present for ya." Without stopping, she kneels down, scooping up Hope with one arm, then a couple steps more before picking up Jean. "Ah'm takin' them to da medical bay." It isn't a suggestion and she is not waiting for Scott to catch up. Hope is laid out, her worn knife from her dad laying on the ground by her. She lays uneven, as there was a semi-automatic rifle she never used on her back still. The white long coat is spread out, leaving her a black spot against its background, her red hair spread as a halo about her, wisps touching her pale face in the slight breeze. Her face will be bruised up tomorrow too now. When the girl is lifted up by Rogue's arm, she is completely limp. The bullet is tucked into a pocket, and Jean is carefully remanded into Rogue's custody. "Thanks Rogue. I'll see you inside." He then moves over to where Cable dropped Hope's blade, and picks it up, examining the weapon for a few moments, frowning, before turning and glancing back towards the now-ruined gates. Whatever his thoughts on the rather mysterious cyborg called Cable and his possible connections with Hope, those thoughts remain a mystery for now. "What a mess..." Likely no sleep for Scott tonight...for a variety of reasons.